I am posting this message in the Networking forums because my issure here is visibility into a Virtual Linux box hosted on my Windows PC by my other Virtual Linux on the same PC.

I am a bit constraned because I must keep within certain parameters that were given to me in my assignment or "lab"

I have a home wireless network. My base are windows PCs and for this assignment I have 2 Linux VMs on a Vista PC. I am doinng great with Linux VM2. I can access the internet, and it is configured for dhcp so my network is assigning it a local LAN ip address. I am root on my Linux VM2.

On my Linux VM1 I am only a user with no rights to install programs, etc. There is not even the function lsusb on this machine so I can't even mount a USB. Thankfully I can peddle things in an out of my Linux VM1 through the CD ROM drive.

My Linux VM1 has a web server running on it. It's Appache. If I am logged in as a local user into VM1 then I can access that web page, but I am not able to access the internet and no other machine can see its web content.

VM1 cannot be suverted through re-installation, reboot or reassigning the root password, by means of LiveCD, bootup innteruption by means of pressng "e" or f2 and the like.

The assignment is to tweak the machine some other way, to either make it visible so that I have more control over it.

In the assignment, VM1 is configured as a static ip, so we are instructed to set the ip as 192.168.1.nnn as an example. To make things even stranger, they instruct us to set the gateway/dns to an ip address within the 192.168.1.nnn range) and this ip address that they have given does not exist within my network and I do not have a DNS server in my LAN. We don't have to set one up for the assignment. My other machines are being assigned to the range 192.168.0.nnn

When I do some network discovery with Zenmap, it shows the visual traceroute map with VM1 as being outside my "homeportal". which I though was a bit strange.

My constraint is that I can not reconfigure VM1 itself, but I can play with my Vista networking, and the VM2 machine (all machines are running on same hardware.

I have been playing around with the networking but to little avail. I must be missing something.

Another question is, not that I can log into VM1 as a normal user, I ran a netstat adn found that ssh was a running process. How can I find out which port that process is listening on? It's internal firewall is blocking ports, so that when I do a port scan it cannot be definitive about whether ports are open because all ports have been filtered, and I fel that, even though ssh runs on 22 adn some other higher ports, that this may have been intentionally obscured in the assignment. So I am looking for a way through the normal user account on VM1 to query which ports are using what (if possible).

Any insights, information or instructions would be very helpful. I am smewhat purplexed by this assignment. I have gotten halfway through simply to be stymied by these issues ! Thank you in advance...

I appologize, I won't post assignement question. But can I have some general questions answered?

Like, one that I think does not cross bounds would be:

If a person is logged in as a normal user, is there a way to querry the os to find out which ports are in use and by what?

Also, in general, being an adult who is taking an online course, I feel as if the rule of no help on homework really delegitamizes people who are trying to learn.

Is someone who is not taking a class, but is trying to learn more legitamate on this forum than someone who is taking a class and also has a home LAN they would like to learn about as well?

I really have no other place to get support except for internet forums. This has not been going well for me :( I wish forums would revisit rules that prohibit people from posting about lab homework issues. I could have lied about the fact that this was an assignment, but I was honest about my intentions. However, this rule encourages people to fake-around that rule.

Are students to feel that they have to hide and lie about their intentions in order to get ansers to questions? I didn't ask anyone to come over an do the homework for me. I have been on this assignment for two weeks, sweating over different attempts. I just was hoping someone could throw me a bone.

If anyone out their sympathizes with me they can throw me a bone at gh0pp3r (at) inbox (dot) com

I also just found out that on my VM1 it was worth to check to see if teh admin had been nice and installed some useful programs. Indeed they were. having nmap on the system allowed me to scan VM1 to discover open ports. had never before tried to scan my own ip with nmap. This was useful info that I think everyone on this forum can benefit from, regardless of if this was related to a "home work assignment from a student"

01-06-2010

HROAdmin26

Learning is about reading, testing, playing, and figuring things out *on your own.* It is not about asking some random person "what's the answer" and writing it down for later use.

Yes, you can attempt to lie about the purpose behind your questions, but that is a personal matter for you to decide. Many people on here that answer questions know the material and can sniff out when someone is clearly lying about their purpose/intentions.

As to your question, I just hit Google with "linux list open ports" - take the results, do some reading, and play with the commands to see the results. What is difficult about that?

01-06-2010

gh0pp3r

I think your words are very discouraging. I joined this forum because I am an IT professional who has been in development for about 8 years adn I am switching to networking, and I thought that this forum is an aspect of the learning process. I have many books that I have been reading, many googles I have done, and thought that a forum is a place to get additional support. Members are supported here every day with answers to their questions, and yet I was turned away and accused of "not reading" as if I am too stupid to understand about self study. Not only is you policy misguided, but also your approach to me was condecending and unfortunate.

I think it is a big mistake to assume that homework questions could not be of help and as an IT professional I could potentially be a valued member here and have the ability to help others.

Freedom and openess and how freedom and openess pertain to learning should not be constrained by marginalizing certain people from the learning process. By marginalizing the population of students who ask questions due to challenging study, you bar the value of their qestions to other members as well as the entire thread of discussion that is part of the learning process. The most idealic learning environment, fundamentally does not marginalize.

I signed up for an online training class or which there were materials but no instructor help. This is one of the best places I could have come to get supplimental support while I go through this course. Unfortunately, but this policy and by this treatment, that was shut down.

I have learned that this is not a community for me....especially being treated like this and with such a policy.

You are losing a lot f vaue in this and I am sure I am not the only person who would apreciate if you were to revisit this policy. I hope you will value my feedback and understand that evryone is in a dfferent stuation.